Opinion: Was Brad Sherman joking again? Sadly, no

The San Fernando Valley congressman fancies himself quite the comedian. There's his oft-repeated line about Sherman Oaks being "America's best-named city." There are the combs he hands out to potential voters, an attempt at ironic humor, since Sherman himself is nearly bald.

Yes, Sherman really did lose his cool after Berman stepped close to him during a pointed exchange about authorship of the Dream Act. The larger, younger Sherman threw his arm around Berman's shoulders and said, "You want to get into this?" A sheriff's deputy intervened, Berman asked for calm and the debate went on.

On the video, the audience's loud reactions make it hard to hear what the two men said, but Berman gave the crowd a sardonic glance and poked a thumb toward Sherman as if to say: Get a load of this guy.

Indeed.

One reason our editorial board endorsed Berman over Sherman in the much-watched 30th District battle of incumbents is Berman's reputation as a cool-headed legislative practitioner vs. Sherman's reputation as a grandstanding capitol lightweight.

In a meeting with the editorial board earlier this week, veteran Rep. Henry Waxman, a Berman friend and supporter, said of the Berman-Sherman race: "It's a question of effectiveness. (Berman) is not a showhorse, he's a workhorse. Brad Sherman is a showhorse exclusively -- and ineffective."

One thing Sherman always has done effectively is work local crowds, stoking a self-image as a man of the people in the San Fernando Valley. Sherman took that to a laughable extreme during the altercation at Pierce College on Thursday. Right before he looped his arm around Berman in a bullying way, he told his opponent: "Don't you dare stand up here in the West San Fernando Valley and get in my face!"

Did Sherman think he was defending his turf? Did he think he sounded tough? If a security man hadn't stepped between them, would he have challenged Berman to meet him out back of the Westfield Promenade?